With 19% of the vote counted, the California Secretary of State has Carly Fiorina just about 1% ahead of Barbara Boxer. Nevertheless, AP has called the election for Boxer:

(AP) LOS ANGELES – Democrat Barbara Boxer has won her fourth term in the U.S. Senate, dashing GOP hopes of removing the liberal icon with a strong challenge from former Hewlett-Packard Co. CEO Carly Fiorina.

Boxer’s re-election Tuesday was not easy. She faced a multimillionaire candidate and a wave of attack ads funded by out-of-state business and conservative groups.

The campaign was among the most challenging in the 69-year-old senator’s long political career, as she found herself defending Democratic attempts to turn around the struggling economy.

Fiorina blamed Democrats for failed economic policies, but Boxer turned the tables and said Fiorina represented a return to past Republican policies that created the recession.

Boxer also painted Fiorina as too extreme for most California voters on issues ranging from abortion to gun control.